A century after Scott's doomed expedition, one woman ventures under the Antarctic ice. The discovery of Captain Scott's body in the Antarctic in 1912 started a global obsession with him as a man and an explorer.

But a central mystery remains -- why did he and his companions remain during their last ten days in a tent just 11 miles from the safety of their food and fuel depot? Birdie Bowers, an infamously secretive painter, is a woman with a dead man's name: Henry "Birdie" Bowers was one of Scott's companions. A century after his death, she is determined to discover what really happened to him. On her way to view some of the relics from Scott's tent, she collapses and is rescued by Adam, a bored computer expert–who falls in love with her so completely that he agrees to travel with her to the Antarctic to discover the site of Scott's tent, now encased beneath 30 yards of ice. Dead Men tells the story of two journeys. One is of Scott's tragic exploration of the world's coldest continent; the other is of self-discovery and passion in the present day. A debut that ranks with the best of Sarah Waters or Scarlett Thomas, Dead Men is a novel about obsession, life, and death, and the redemptive power of love.

Milo's Rambles

Mar 23 2012

A remarkable debut, Dead Men deserves to be read. It’s as simple as that. It will educate and entertain simultaneously, a clever blend of old and new, meticulously morphed to bring together a time forgotten.

Lovely Treez Reads

Reviewed by Teresa
on
Mar 15 2012

My favourite parts of the novel are those set in the Antarctic, both past and present, as the writer really captures the beautiful desolation of the landscape – an environment which could turn on you and kill you without warning.

For Winter Nights

Feb 22 2012

It is, however, poetically told and I was as moved by it as, at times, I was frightened. It’s a gentle, relatively short and well-written tale focusing on characters past and present with whom we quickly become involved.